How did you get your twins to sleep longer at night?

Amelie - posted on 04/03/2011
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My boys are now 3 months old and almost 14 lbs. They still wake twice each at night and get eight 5-6 bottles in a 24 hour period. I would think with the amount they are eating, they would be able to sleep longer but thats not happening. They also have started to only want to cat nap during the day making it such a long day because they get over tired and fuss sometimes for hours! We started a eat/play/sleep routine 2 weeks ago and it was going soooo well, I loved how predictable things were getting but now thats all gone out the window. Anyone have any suggestions on what I can do?

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Kelly - posted on 04/10/2011

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My fraternal twin boys are 11.5weeks old and have slept through the past 3 nights from 10.30pm till somewhere between 6.30 and 7.30am!! Firstly I turned off the baby monitor in my room and started sleeping in the spare room near the babies. I then realised that I was waking up hearing the babies grunting etc and was then going in and feeding, whereas when I didn't have that in my ear I couldn't hear the little noises and only woke when the babies were really hungry. The very first night I did that they woke at 4.30, then 6.30! My boys were 36weeks born and are already 14.5lbs - one is breastfed and one is bottle fed, although I do give them both bottles at night and they tend to eat almost two whole feeds from about 8pm - 10pm. I did find one baby wakes me still around 4.30 but I just pop his dummy in and he happily goes back to sleep. May not be something you're happy to try, and of course may not work for you! Good luck - I know how tiring the night feeds are.

Mine started sleeping through the night at 4 month, it was SO nice since they both had colic and that deffinately made naps during the day hard. This is what I did, around 11pm I would go in and give them a bottle with cereal in it, and they would sleep until 6am. Once the colic was over I had to work hard on getting them on a schedule and I was exhusted, but after a couple of weeks it was great and ever since they have been amazing sleepers. They are 4 now and sometimes still take a nap, but we are up at 7am and in bed by 7pm. I am from Europe and my husband is a Marine so when we had our boys we had nobody to help, the first year was insanely hard, husband being deployed for 7 month of them and gone about 6 month doing workups before deployment. After the colic went away I had about 1.5 months with them sleeping through the night and then one started to get double earinfections so NO sleep for me or my poor baby, lots of time spent in the ER thankfully when one is sick the other just automatically let his brother get all the attention he needs without fussing, he would sit in the stroller at the ER playing and being such a sweet baby boy, so I could try and soothe the other until we got to see the doctor. Oh so hard but also oh so amazing, I am so lucky to have twins it took us 6 years to get pregnant and yes it was SO hard but so worth it:) Give it time your babies are only 3 month and you really cannot expect them to sleep through the night yet, some babies do early on and god knows I wish mine would have done that LOL but eventually we got there:D

My boys started sleeping through at 6 months (with the odd wake up at 4:45 am some mornings for a moment but not to feed) What I started doing with them around this AWESOME time, was dual feeding them before I went to bed, so yes, picking them up out of sleep and giving them a really good drink (mostly so that I would not feel that they were hungry if they woke in the night) but as soon as I started doing that I had a week of sleep every night..what a difference. Saying that, Charlene did mention a growth spurt, so it is something you can try but nothing is a rule when it comes to your own children. They did wake up here and there the first couple of nights but I knew they weren't hungry, gave them their pacifier and they cried for 30 seconds. They are in the routine now, but are begininng the teething process so yay ;)

My girls (born at 28 weeks) only started sleeping through when they were almost 2 years old! We were still giving them a midnight feed, and one night (when daddy was on nightshift), I couldn't be bothered getting up at midnight and they slept through! They still go through phases where they wake up a few times a night, but we usually just ignore them and they fall asleep again. They'll sleep through when they're ready lol - good luck :-)

When our twin boys were that age they did the same thing. So I asked my mother and used the oldest trick in the book and when I did that they slept from last bottle at 10 right though till 6 in the morning. When I made the bottle 6-7oz of milk and a teaspoon of pablum(cereal) make the hole a little bigger in the nipple and voila a sleepy though the night baby. I started with a teaspoon and added a little bit more each day till they were up to a tablespoon.. It is just at this point they are growing so much. Daily naps - put them down about 9-9:30 and turn on some soft music on the radio in there nursary. The best advise my mom gave me close the door and walk away. Go back and peek in gently after a couple of minutes. Do the same thing in the afternoon.Hope this helps it did for us.

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Amelie - posted on 04/10/2011

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Well I have good news!! One of my boys has been sleeping from 9-6:30 for the past 5 days (except for 1 night he got up @ 4) and my other son is down to getting up only once except for last night whem he slept right through!!! ahhhh....so this is what sleep feels like lolThe days are still rough since their naps are still super short but we'll get it together one day :) thanks for sharing all your experiences and advice :)

WOW!! it also took my 8 year old almost a year! I guess if we cater to them they continue waking up, but its just hard for me not to cater to beautiful smiling healthy babies :+) Ill have to keep working on it. I want to get a little stricter but I think Im gonna wait till they're atleast 6-7 months :+) It goes by so fast anyways :+)

I am now mother to 17mth old twin boys! They didnt sleep thru night feeds til around 16wks but would still sometimes wake where i offered water instead of milk so they eventually slept thru til 6/7am!! as for thru the day try sticking to routine.....i put boys down around 9am to sleep 1hr & then 12.30-2pm! worked for us but all babies r different!! hope u find something that works 4 u xx

Amelie, yes they are only 3 months (barely:) mine were also born at 35 weeks so I dont know if I should take that into consideration granted they are now 13 and 14 lbs!!:+) I have an 8 year old and did the waking up every 3 hours for almost a year! it was hard, but he turned out great! and like you said it goes by so quick and like i tell my husband soon enough we will want to hold them and cuddle with them and they wont want to anymore :(well my boys have also been spoiled with an every 2 hrs. eating during the day schedule. our ped told us to fed them on demand when they were born because they were 5 and 6 lbs. now they are used to it and if not fed they cry!! Well I guess I will keep trying and see what happens. thaks

Miriam, I think our boys were born on the same day! Mine turned 3 months on Sunday as well lol Your boys are on such a strict routine, that they are probably waking up out of habit. You can always try giving them water instead of milk for one of the feeds to start off with or try pacifying them somehow back to sleep without having to feed them, thats really all I can think of...your doing the right thing by letting them fall asleep on their own, so thats a bonus right there!!So.. I think its confirmed...my sons are going through a growth spurt. They were eating every 3 hours, now they want food around 2.5 hrs and more of it. My one son will not nap during the day still, just little cat naps but he slept all night and my other son only woke up once (insert angels singing here) So things are starting to look up, I just needed to give it time, and I have to keep reminding myself that they are only 3 months old and things will improve.Thanks for all the advice :)

As soon as my babies were on 4 hourly feeds they were like clockwork for their nightly feeds. As I said they didn't wake for their 10pm feed but I fed them anyway so they would keep till 2am and then they were hungry again at 6. Yea they moaned some sometimes but I gave them their pacifier and turned them to the other side and they would be fine and went right back to sleep. I'm addicted to my sleep so I tried not to make a big fuss and pick them up etc... they had to learn night time is sleep time. And I absolutely didn't change nappies in the dark unless it was a no 2! I can only tell you what I did and what worked for me every mom and every baby is different and it's trial and error. I didn't set the alarm for feeds but during the day I tried to keep them in a routine and when they started skipping 2am but cried at 3am or 4am I gave them a sip of cooled boiled water and straight off to bed for a few nights so they got used to not getting milk and after that it was smooth sailing. When hubby and I were really tired we would go to sleep after they went to bed, set the alarm for 10am to feed them and then off to bed again. and that is my story of how we got more than 3 hours sleep at night. They do grow up and it goes real fast. Before you know it they are toddlers and you'll wonder where your babies have gone!

My boys just turned 3 months 2 days ago and have yet to sleep longer than 5 hrs. at a time they go to bed at 7:30 and eat at 11:30 and at 2:30 and at 4:30 than they are up by either 5 or 6!! they have a couple cat napst through the day as well every now and than they have one nice hour or 2 hour nap usually just one of them and the other one wont! My husband and I both work full time my mom watches them mon, tue, and fri my husband is off wed, and thur and they are with me and my 8 year old son sat,and sun. make a long story short... my question is how do you get them to take long naps and sleep a little later in the mornings? I put them down drowsy and awake at night and they go to sleep okay, but are up early in the morning and have a really hard time napping. any advice would be appreciated.

I would try starting to work towards 2 naps a day, one in the morning and one after lunch. My boys started sleeping 11-12 hours a night probably around 7-8 months old. I don't get to enjoy it though because I work 3rd shift. I get anywhere from 2-6 hours of sleep a day. So I understand why you are anxious to get some sleep. :(

Charlene: They were napping about 3-4 times a day for about 1-1.5 hrs each time but now its a hodge podge of half hour cat naps all day. I totally forgot about the 3 month growth spurt. I hope thats what it is. It would be so much easier to get up twice each night if they'd nap during the day so I could rest a little bit. Glad to hear that you had success at 4 months though, it gives me something to look forward too! lolKim: I guess your right and that its normal for them to be getting up twice at night still. I think I'm just so ready to sleep longer than 2-3 hours straight.

I havnt slept a full night in almost years since my older daughter is only 18 months and she only started sleeping through the night about a month ago. I see what we did wrong with our daughter by feeding her ever single time she woke up at night and it became a habit for her...I dont want the same thing to happen with the boys!

At 3 months old you shouldn't expect them to sleep through the night. I noticed my boys schedule changed every few months. You just have to adjust. I think waking up only 2 times a night at 3 months is normal. They will eventually grow out of that. I think mine stopped night feedings between 4-6 months old.

at 3 months they go through a growth spurt and drink more than usual. Give it another month and you'll see they will start sleeping longer. What I did is wait for their first feed at 22:00 and feed them while they are sleeping (because they didn't wake for this feed) and then they would be full for the rest of the night and everyone could get at least 8 hours sleep... But this only happened at 4 months.